Eats

Finding a tiny specialty shop among the more common strip mall scene is a treasure. Discovering it’s a candy shop is a dream. For a chocolate lover, actually walking into the Heart & Sugar shop is almost heavenly.  Sunlight streams through the small shop, filling it with a golden tint as powder blue chalkboards hanging […]

They don’t wear red tights and a cape. Nor do they have superpowers. However they do dedicate their lives to helping the less fortunate, and they drive a cool van with a giant carrot on the back.  The fine folks at Veggie Rescue are making our community a better place, and it’s probably only slightly […]

Louisiana is 2,000 miles from the Central Coast, but somehow Jerome Stevens brought a little slice of the Pelican State to Guadalupe.  Inspired by his roots in Lafayette, La., Stevens opened a small joint in Guadalupe dishing out both types of popular Louisiana food: Cajun and Creole cuisine.  Calling it Papa Jay’s Cajun and Creole […]

The new coffee house and eatery in the shopping center at the corner of Clark and Bradley in Orcutt is more than a coffee shop.     For 6 Degrees co-owners Starr Hall Egan and her husband, Jude, first and foremost, it is a place for locals to gather.  “We moved here, and we thought, […]

Quinoa, edamame, and dark chocolate have become buzz words in the health food industry appearing on dinner plates increasingly often. They generally don’t appear in candy, but when they do they can make a surprisingly complementary component that satisfies the craving for something sweet.  One Santa Maria business is scoring big with its combination of […]

The rattling tinkle of ice furiously tumbling in a metal shaker is drowned out by voices colliding against the tall rough-hewn timber and brick walls of a cozy cocktail bar in downtown Arroyo Grande on a Friday night. A July evening breeze eases in from a warehouse-door-sized open window overlooking the sidewalk. People stand by […]

It was hot and muggy, and we were on a quest for Mexican food for dinner. Yes, there are a lot of delicious options on the Central Coast, but we wanted something specific. We wanted something authentic but original. We wanted an atmosphere that would transport us to someplace that matched the warm, unusually humid […]

Each year, thousands of imbibers converge upon New Orleans in mid-July for Tales of the Cocktail. The five-day, seminar-filled event is a convention of industry types—bartenders, distributors, manufacturers, etc.—who come from around the world to get a taste of the latest and greatest in booze trends. On the surface, the event appears to be a […]

Can a restaurant be the happy ending to a love story? As the new owners of Jack’s Restaurant celebrated with a recent ribbon cutting surrounded by friends, family, and fellow merchants it certainly seemed so. It was a passion for food and service that brought owners Chris and Terri Salazar together, and as they celebrated […]

When I want straight talk about wine, I head straight for Larry Schaffer. Whether attending a Santa Barbara Vintners event, a Rhone Rangers tasting, or visiting his Tercero wine tasting room in Los Olivos, I can always count on this fervent wine guru for a lively discussion and his occasionally provocative perspective. Schaffer has a […]

At first sight it may seem like Floriano’s restaurant in Lompoc has a bit of an identity problem—caught between being a butcher shop and a restaurant—but at first bite it all becomes clear. The unassuming Mexican restaurant looks like a small specialty market from the outside, but this Lompoc gem has gained a huge following […]

Described by some as the restaurant Lompoc has been waiting for, Scratch Kitchen restaurant and wine bar opened for business on May 1. “It’s a restaurant that Lompoc deserves,” replied co-owner and chef Augusto Caudillo. “We are fertilizing the epicurean desert that has been Lompoc for a long time, and we want to give Lompoc […]